Dr. Elio Alba Buffill, 87, died on August 24, 2017 in Cedar Grove. Visiting in the Prout Funeral Home, 370 Bloomfield Avenue, Verona will be on Sunday from 2 to 7 p.m. A funeral mass will be offered in Our Lady of the Lake Church, 32 Lakeside Avenue, Verona on Monday, August 28 at 10 a.m.
Born in Regla, Cuba, Dr. Alba Buffill came to the United States in 1961 and has lived in Verona for 50 years.
He has a Doctor of Law Degree from the University of Havana and was a Professor of Civil Law in the Social Catholic University, Saint John Baptist of LaSalle, Havana, (1958-1961). In the U.S. he obtained a Master of Arts from Rutgers University and a PhD from New York University, receiving the “Founders Day Award” for academic excellence.
Dr. Alba Buffill started teaching at City University of New York, Kingsborough College in 1969 and retired in 1995 as Professor Emeritus. He was also a Visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Uruguay in the summers of 1982 and 1986.
Since 1975 he was the National Executive Secretary of Circulo de Cultura Panamericano until 2016, when he retired, and he has been the Editor for 41 years of the annual publication Circulo: Revista de Cultura; member of the Conference of Editors of Learned Journals.
He is a Numeral Member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language and Correspondent Member of the Royal Academy of the Language in Madrid.
He is also an Honorary Member of the Uruguayan Academy of Letters; Member Emeritus of Herencia Cultural Cubana; Member of the Academy of History of Cuba (Exile), Cuban Bar Association (Exile), International PEN Club of Cuban Writers (Exile), International Association of Hispanists and National Association of Cuban American Educators that awarded him as “Educator of the Year” (2010).
He is also the author of many books of criticism in Hispanic literatures, especially Cuban and Spanish American.
He has contributions to collection of essays, literary journals and proceedings of international and national literary conventions, published in USA, Spanish America and Europe. He wrote four preliminary studies for the Cuban Classics Books Collection of Editorial Cubana.
He has delivered lectures in North American and foreign universities about different aspects of Cuban and Spanish American literatures in Puerto Rico, California, Indiana, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington DC, as well as in Madrid, Murcia, Spain; Venecia, Italy; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay; Asuncion, Paraguay and Birmingham, England.
He has given numerous dissertations about different aspects of Cuban history from colonial times to the funest consequences of the actual communism regime.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Esther (nee Sanchez Grey) Alba.
